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A FOOL THERE WAS
Sy H. M. Egbert.
(Copyright, 1916, W. G. Chapman.)
"You are acting foolishly, Tom,"
said Jim Holloran to Ttis son. "You
know very well that the girl's a waif
and stray. If you marry her you'll
come to regret it."
"She's as good as anyone else
around here," answered Holloran in
dignantly. His father's opinion was in a se
verer form than the fisherfolks on
Clark island. Seventeen years be
fore a Ship had gone to pieces on the
rock in the bay. When the lifeboat
men clambered aboard they found a
dying woman clutching a puny infant
to her breast The child was a girl;
brought ashore, it grew into acome
ly young woman. The kindly fisher
folks, who reared her christened her
Helen Clark.
That was as far as their imagina
tion could run. Helen and Tom, the
son of her foster parents' neighbor,
had always been sweethearts. The
young fisherman and the girl were
engaged to be married soon.
The idea was, not that the girl was
unworthy of Tom, but that some day
she would be claimed. The linen and
cloth in which she had been wrapped
were exceptionally fine. There was
a locket on the throat of the dead
woman containing the photograph of
a handsome, domineering man, the
type of successful financier. Every
body believed that somewhere the
girl's father lived; some day he would
claimfher.
In those days the attention of the
nation had been absorbed by the
Spanish war. The wreck had receiv
ed but passing notice. There had
been only three survivors besides the
child fishermen. It was a little
coasting steamer. Why should Hel
en's mother have taken passage
aboard her?
"No matter what ever happens,
LHeaJLfihirugtjtoji," said, Tpm.
"I shall always be true to you,
dear," answered the girl.
Two weeks before the marriage the
man with the domineering face ap
peared on the island. The elder folks
recognized him at once from the
photograph. Silently they followed
him to the house where the girl lived.
The story that he unfolded was a
strange one, but bore the mark of
truth. He had quarreled with his
wife 17 years before. She had left
him, and he had never associated her
A Ship Had Cone to Pieces on the
Rocks.
with the wreck. There was no rea
son why he should have done so. He
had tried to trace her and the child
for years, but had only received a
clue from a summer visitors to the
island, who had seen the photograph
the year before, and heard the ro
mantic story. He wanted Helen to
be his daughter in his old age.
He frowned angrily when he learn
ed gttiie approaching marriage.
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